“Your host on this site is Walter Biscardi, Jr, a longtime veteran of television and digital video production. He has been a part of many national honors including the Emmy and Peabody Awards”

Wow. That sounds professional. I’m not sure why it’s in third person. I’m also the one typing this.

Ok, ok, ok…… I love to travel, eat and cook. The “holy trinity” of living. I’ve been writing reviews and sharing recipes on various sites for years so I figured it was time to bring it all together on very fun and very visual site. At least that’s the idea. See I produce videos and animations for a living. vIf you’re a fan of “Good Eats” on the Food Network you saw a lot of my work in Seasons 9 – 12. But I’m ok with uni-taskers if they’re really REALLY good at what they do.

Now growing up in an Italian American household, the kitchen was my the heart of my upbringing.

Christmas Eve early 1970’s in our family dining room. That’s me at the head of the table sitting on Poppi’s lap.

We spent more time in that kitchen than most families spend in their living rooms. At 8 years old I distinctly remember cooking a pork roast for the family. See if I wasn’t making videos I’d own a restaurant, probably a Trattoria. But my wife won’t let me open a restaurant, so I’m opening this website instead. She can’t stop me from doing this. You can think of it as my virtual restaurant, pull up a chair, grab a glass of Chianti and let’s see what Wally has on the menu today. I’ll be sharing both food / restaurant reviews along with recipes and menus.

Sr and Jr ready to cruise Alaska

When traveling, food is often a very big part of the journey along with unique places to visit.

When I was a kid, well a Chinese restaurant was exotic, though we were never introduced to “Chinese Turkey.” When we’re out and about, it’s all about the local flavors and local restaurants. When traveling, we’re discerning mini-golf players and don’t say putt-putt because that’s just silly. It’s MINIATURE GOLF, not just putting. And while we’re at it, you play mini-golf JUST LIKE REAL GOLF! Each player “tees off” and then you finish out the hole based on the furthest ball first, just like real golf. What’s the deal with all of you playing the hole one at a time?!? You all play together!

It’s just like REAL GOLF! Everyone tees off and plays the hole together.

But I digress. In my travels I still want a decent place to crash and lay down my head so I’ve got reviews here of the places I’ve stayed. Mostly good with some crappers in the pile. I think one of the best values for traveling are cruises. Yeah you might be with a few thousand of your closest friends, but the per night value is hard to top anywhere else, even those all-inclusive resorts. You can argue with that, that’s fine. I can’t hear you.

There will be assorted mayhem as well.

Nope, I don’t know what that means either, it just sounds really good in the tagline and it made you look, right? Maybe it’s a reference to the Christmas stuff. Yes, there will be Christmas stuff like our family’s Feast of the Seven Fishes and my totally awesome, totally homemade Christmas Display. But mostly it’ll be Christmas food and preparation tips

My totally awesome, totally handmade Christmas Display.

Damn, this thing’s turning into a book report.

“I believe Walter’s use of the term ‘mayhem’ is an existential reference to the upsetting of the natural order in the literacy sense of how the word mayhem is used just as when Tolstoy said “Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself.” (1)

COFFEE!!!

There will be much discussion about coffee on this site too.I currently own 7 different coffee makers.I use most of them regularly because the same coffee tastes different depending on the method used.I much prefer whole beans because grinding them at the moment you are about to make coffee gives you the best flavors.But I’ll talk about that when we talk coffee.

Damn, are you still reading this?

A very suspicious Molly the Wonder Dog. “Whachulookinat?”

This is like a stupid long About page, don’t you think? About pages are supposed to be quick and to the point so you don’t lose interest and go surfing off to other pages. Have you surfed to another page or did you stay with this all the way through? Dang, I need to give you a medal for making this far. But only accept it if you did NOT leave the page. I swear if you left this page and accept this medal for reading this page without leaving, I WILL FIND YOU!

Ok, ok, ok, enough writing. Get back to all the other pages and the awesomeness that is Where’s Walter!

Wally. (aka Walter)

Yeah, that’s my nickname. See my sister’s friend gave that to me when I was kid because I used to watch “Leave it to Beaver “ and she tried to start calling me “Beav.” But one day her friend was over and said “No he looks more like a Wally” and that stuck. Most of my close friends call me Wally and I probably should have named the site, “Where’s Wally!” but I thought my proper first name would be the better way to go.

Oh My God! Are you still reading this!?! Seriously, stop. Just stop. Now you’re just being silly.

(1) That’s a real quote from Tolstoy.It sounds like something I would say (no it doesn’t) but it really is a quote from Tolstoy. Well at least I think it is.It came up on a Google search and I didn’t do the proper “3 attributes” to ensure it’s the real thing.When working in News (I started my career at CNN) you’re supposed to be able to confirm your story with three different sources to prove it’s true.I didn’t do that with his quote because…. well I don’t care.